Eddie Brock
Eddie Brock (real named Edward Brock, Jr. or Venom) is a photographer for the Daily Bugle, and the main antagonist of the 2007 superhero film, Spider-Man 3. Background Development/Creation Writer David Michelinie and artist Todd McFarlane are generally credited with the character's creation, based on a number of plot ideas and concepts from various other creators. The question of who created the character of Venom became an issue of contention in 1993 when Michelinie wrote to the comic book industry magazine Wizard, which had referred to Michelinie in issue #17 as "co-creator" of Venom. In his letter, printed in issue #21 (May 1993), Michelinie wrote that he was the character's sole creator, while saying also he believed that without McFarlane the character would not have attained the popularity it did. Writer Peter David corroborated Michelinie's view in his "But I Digress" column in the June 4, 1993 Comics Buyer's Guide, in which he stated that Michelinie discussed the ideas behind the character with him at the time of its creation. At that time, David was the writer on The Spectacular Spider-Man and wrote the "Sin Eater" storyline from which Eddie Brock's backstory would be derived, well before McFarlane was assigned to the art duties on Amazing. Because the artist who illustrates a character's first published appearance is generally credited as its co-creator (especially if that artist is the one who designs the character's visual appearance), Venom represents a complex situation, because the costume from which Venom's appearance is derived was not designed by McFarlane. Erik Larsen responded to Michelinie's letter with one of his own that was printed in Wizard #23 (July 1993), in which he dismissed Michelinie's contributions to the character, arguing that Michelinie merely "swiped" the preexisting symbiote and its powers to place it on a character whose motivations were poorly conceived, one-dimensional, unbelievable, and clichéd. Larsen also argued that it was McFarlane's rendition of the character that made it commercial. The preexisting elements that dealt with the symbiote costume itself—to which Michelinie did not contribute—have also been noted. The original idea of a new costume for Spider-Man that would later become the character Venom was conceived of by a Marvel Comics reader from Norridge, Illinois named Randy Schueller. Marvel purchased the idea for $220.00 after the editor-in-chief at the time, Jim Shooter, sent Schueller a letter acknowledging Marvel's desire to acquire the idea from him, in 1982. Schueller's design was then modified by Mike Zeck, becoming the Symbiote costume. For example, Shooter came up with the idea of switching Spider-Man to a black-and-white costume, possibly influenced by the intended costume design for the new Spider-Woman, with artists Mike Zeck and Rick Leonardi, as well as others, designing the black-and-white costume. Writer/artist John Byrne asserts on his website that the idea for a costume made of self-healing biological material was one he originated when he was the artist on Iron Fist to explain how that character's costume was constantly being torn and then apparently repaired by the next issue, explaining that he ended up not using the idea on that title, but that Roger Stern later asked him if he could use the idea for Spider-Man's alien costume. Stern in turn plotted the issue in which the costume first appeared but then left the title. It was writer Tom DeFalco and artist Ron Frenzwho had established that the costume was a sentient alien being, and that it was vulnerable to high sonic energy during their run on The Amazing Spider-Man that preceded Michelinie's. Regardless, Peter David's position is that Michelinie is the sole creator, since the idea of creating a separate character using the alien symbiote was Michelinie's, as was Eddie Brock's backstory, and that without the idea to create such a character, the character would not have existed. In an interview with Tom DeFalco, McFarlane states that Michelinie did indeed come up with the idea of Venom and the character's basic design ("a big guy in the black costume"). However, he contends that it was he (McFarlane) who gave Venom his monster-like features. He claims; "I just wanted to make him kooky and creepy, and not just some guy in a black suit." This dispute arose at a time when the merits of artists as collaborators and writers were being debated in the industry, a discussion prompted by the popularity of artists such as McFarlane, Larsen, and other founders of Image Comics. Venom's existence was first indicated in Web of Spider-Man #18 (Sept. 1986), when he shoves Peter Parker in front of a subway train without Parker's spider-sense warning him, though only Brock's hand is seen on-panel. The next indication of Venom's existence was in Web of Spider-Man #24 (March 1987), when Parker has climbed out of a high story window to change into Spider-Man, but finds a black arm coming through the window and grabbing him, again without being warned by his spider-sense. The character would remain unseen and inactive until Amazing Spider-Man editor Jim Salicrup required a villain for that book's 300th issue, and Michelinie suggested a villain consisting of the alien symbiote grafted onto the body of a human female; seeking revenge for the deaths of her husband and miscarried baby who would accidentally die as the unfortunate result of Spider-man battling another supervillain. Salicrup accepted the suggestion, but changed the character to a male, and the female character's plot was also abandoned. Michelinie then devised the Eddie Brock identity. Michelinie contends that the plots for issues #298–299, as well as the visual descriptions of the character, were written and bought by Salicrup before McFarlane was ever assigned to the book. Powers and abilities Brock is a human and has no superhuman powers without the Symbiote. Prior to joining with the Symbiote, he possesses olympic-level strength from engaging in repeated, significant weight-training exercise. After separating from the Symbiote and suffering from cancer, Brock loses much of his physical muscle and possesses the strength of an average human. Brock's cancer is cured in the 2008 story "New Ways to Die", and he is later shown with a restored large physique. He is also shown to be proficient in combat and capable of using specialized weaponry to defeat symbiote-empowered enemies. As Venom, Brock gains several abilities similar to those of Spider-Man, the Symbiote's former host, including superhuman strength, speed, agility and reflexes as well as the ability to adhere to most surfaces with his hands and feet. The Symbiote is also able to project a web-like substance from its body, similar to Spider-Man's. However, this webbing is produced organically by the Symbiote from its own mass, which means that overuse can weaken the alien until it is able to regenerate. The Symbiote can also send out tendrils which can be used to grab or manipulate items from a distance. When bonded with the host, the Symbiote allows the host to bypass Spider-Man's spider-sense, preventing the hero from sensing attacks. The Symbiote is susceptible to harm from high-pitched sonic frequencies which can cause it to be severely weakened or killed. The bond between the Symbiote and Brock was strong enough that using sonics against the Symbiote could also stun and kill Brock. Venom's body is extremely resistant to injury, capable of outright stopping bladed weapons, bullets, and it can help its host survive in hostile environments by filtering air, allowing survival underwater and in toxic environments. Venom can also morph his appearance, to create disguises at will, and camouflage itself, even emulating water. It is also capable of psychically detecting its offspring; however, this ability can be blocked.33 This sense can be used by Brock even when separated from the suit, allowing him to detect and be detected by the Symbiote and its children. The Symbiote is capable of healing injury and illness at an increased rate, allowing the host to survive otherwise fatal attacks. The Symbiote and host are capable of sharing knowledge, the Symbiote able to pass on information from previous hosts to future ones. Personality Eddie Brock is, overall, a complete opposite of Peter Parker. Unlike Peter, who is more mild-mannered, Eddie is extremely arrogant, obnoxious, cocky, and flirty. Unlike the other villains in the film franchise, who turned evil under certain circumstances, Eddie was presumably evil from the start, even before the symbiote bonded to him, causing him to become Venom, as when Peter tries to warn him about the dangers of the symbiote suit, he refuses to part with it, saying that being bad makes him feel good. Appearances ''Spider-Man 3'' In the film, Eddie Brock is a photographer for the Daily Bugle, just like Peter Parker, whom he intends to surpass and is competing against him to get a staff job (it is presumed he had been working for them prior to the events of the first film). He is also in a relationship with Gwen Stacy, the police captain's daughter, and tries to be a ladies' man, though women are put off by his arrogant demeanor. However, Eddie is dumped by Gwen and fired from the Daily Bugle when the editor-in-chief J. Jonah Jameson is told that his picture of Spider-Man robbing a bank is a fake by Peter. He later sees Peter with Gwen, making him feel even more resentful. Going to a church, Eddie sadly and angrily prays for Peter's death. Unbeknowst to him, Peter is currently in the bell tower of the church, desperately trying to free himself of the symbiote suit. The chiming of the bell aggravates the symbiote, weakening it and making it easier for Peter to get it off. The chiming gets Eddie's attention, and he goes to investigate the sound, observing Peter at the top. As Peter successfully frees himself from the symbiote's influence, the symbiote goes for its new host: Eddie, giving him a similar appearance to the black-suited Spider-Man, known as Venom. Eddie then goes swinging through the city, and runs into Flint Marko, who just revived himself after being washed away in the subway earlier. Flint, believing Eddie to be Spider-Man and angry about what he did to him earlier, punches him, picks him up, and attempts to punch him again when he roars in his face. Flint, horrified and disgusted by Eddie's monster-like face, tosses him aside. Eddie manipulates Flint into joining forces with him so that they can get their revenge on Spider-Man. Eddie poses as a taxi driver and captures Peter's love interest Mary Jane Watson, and imprisons her at a newly constructed building high above the ground, where he and Flint foil every attempt to rescue her. Peter, seeing this on the news, puts on his original red-and-blue Spider-Man suit, and hurries to save her. As he arrives on the scene, Peter is immediately attacked by Eddie, who reveals himself to Peter and pulls Mary Jane out of his reach. Peter attempts to attack, only to knocked down by Eddie, who ties his wrists to the web, taunts him about how he plans to get vengeance for his humiliation by taking Peter’s love interest away from him and attempts to kill him, but Mary Jane picks up a cinder block that fell from a truck above her, and drops it on him, enabling Peter to attack him as well. Peter and Eddie engage in a free falling fight, with Eddie having the advantage, knocking Peter down while he swings back up into the web. Landing safely on the ground, Peter then ends up contending with Flint, who uses the sand to grow to a gigantic size and attempts to crush him. Peter desperately attempts to rescue MJ, but Eddie knocks him into the building, onto a metal beam, where he comes face-to-face with Flint's colossal Sandman form. Eddie snags Peter around the throat and holds him down, allowing Flint to pound him several times with his massive fist, nearly killing him. Fortunately, Harry Osborn, who had just been told the truth about how his father died by his butler Bernard, arrives wearing his New Goblin outfit just in time to stop Flint from delivering the final blow and subdues Eddie. The two then take on Flint and Eddie in a two-on-two showdown. Flint extends his enormous hand to grab Harry while Eddie leaps at Peter; Harry swings Peter through Flint’s gargantuan hand and into Eddie, sending him through the ceiling and onto another floor. After helping Peter get Mary Jane to safety, Harry manages to defeat Flint by firing missiles at him, causing him to crumble. Peter, meanwhile, is ambushed by Eddie, and tries to warn him about the dangers of the symbiote suit and urges him to get rid of it. Eddie brushes off his warnings, stating that he would rather be evil. Eddie prepares to stab Peter with a jagged metal beam, though Harry stops him with his bat-like pumpkin bombs and attempts to impale Eddie with the blades from his glider, but Eddie dodges the blades and takes Harry's glider, causing Harry to fall and dislodge several pipes that make clanging noises that temporarily weaken the symbiote, making Peter recall how he got the symbiote off of him earlier. Eddie then attempts to impale Peter with Harry's glider, but Harry jumps in the way, getting impaled himself in the process. Venom then throws Harry aside, sending him falling several floors down. While Mary Jane hurries to help Harry, Peter frees himself as Eddie leaps at him to attack. After knocking Venom down using the metal beam, Peter uses the sonic vibrations of the pipes to weaken the symbiote and surrounds Venom with pipes, revealing Eddie, whom Peter pulls free. However, the symbiote no longer needs a host to survive. Growing to a monstrous size, the symbiote attempts to kill Eddie and Peter. Peter cripples the symbiote by hitting the pipes and then summons one of Harry's pumpkin bombs from his glider, turns it on, and throws it at the symbiote. Eddie, horrified by what Peter is attempting to do, attempts to re-don the symbiote suit, showing that he has completely lost his sanity. Peter attempts to stop him, but before he can, the bomb explodes, destroying the symbiote and killing Eddie. Television * Venom appeared in the Spider-Man TV series, voiced by Hank Azaria. Eddie Brock appears as a journalist working for the Daily Bugle until he is fired for his actions by J. Jonah Jameson. He becomes Venom, and seeks revenge against Spider-Man because he believes Spider-Man ruined his journalism career. * Venom appeared in the sequel series Spider-Man Unlimited, voiced by Brian Drummond. By this time, the Venom Symbiote has merged completely with Eddie Brock and he attempts to conquer Counter-Earth alongside Carnage with an invasion of Symbiotes. Eddie himself is briefly separated from Venom in the episode "One is the Loneliest Number". * Venom appears in The Spectacular Spider-Man animated series, with Eddie Brock voiced by Benjamin Diskin, while the Venom Symbiote is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker. He is portrayed as the childhood friend of Peter Parker. Brock loses his research job studying the Symbiote after it bonds with Spider-Man. Spider-Man attempts to destroy the Symbiote after discovering its negative influence, but Brock frees the alien and bonds with the organism, turning himself into Venom. * Venom appears in the summer 2013 animated special Phineas and Ferb: Mission Marvel, voiced by Danny Trejo. * Venom appears in Lego Marvel Super Heroes: Maximum Overload, voiced by Dee Bradley Baker. * The Anti-Venom symbiote's animated debut is seen in Ultimate Spider-Man vs The Sinister Six, voiced by Matt Lanter. Video Games * Venom first appeared as a boss character in the 1993 Mega-CD/Sega CD version of The Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin in which he kidnaps Mary Jane. * Venom is both a protagonist and playable character in Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage (1994) and Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety (1995). * Venom appeared as one of the bosses in The Amazing Spider-Man: Lethal Foes (1995). * Venom appeared as the last boss in Spider-Man (1995). * Venom is a playable character in the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise, his appearances include Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (1998) and Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000) (voiced by Rod Wilson). Venom returns to the franchise as a downloadable playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite (2017). * Venom is a boss and later a supporting character in the Spider-Man (2000) video game, voiced by Daran Norris. * The Ultimate version of Venom is a playable character and also the final boss in the Ultimate Spider-Man (2005) video game, voiced by Daniel Capallaro (Eddie Brock Jr.) and by Arthur Burghardt (Venom). * Venom appears as a playable character in Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects (2005) (voiced by an unknown voice actor). * The Eddie Brock version of Venom is included in the downloadable "Villains Pack" expansion for the Xbox 360 version of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (2006), voiced by Steven Blum. Venom's various alternate skins consist of his Classic and Ultimate designs as well as Angelo Fortunato and Mac Gargan. * Venom is the final boss in the Spider-Man 3 (2007) video game, voiced by Topher Grace. * Venom appears in Spider-Man: Friend or Foe (2007), voiced by Quinton Flynn. He is one of the most powerful partners in the game. Spider-Man encounters him in Transylvania under the control of the P.H.A.N.T.O.M.s. Upon being freed by Spider-Man, Venom states that the person behind the P.H.A.N.T.O.M.s has a "bubble for a head". * Venom appears in Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (2008), voiced by Keith Szarabajka. During this game, part of his Symbiote leaves him and bonds with Spider-Man. He later starts making replicas of the Symbiote in an invasion of New York City. * The Eddie Brock version of Venom is the alternate costume design for Mac Gargan's incarnation of Venom in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 (2009). * Venom is available as downloadable content for the game LittleBigPlanet as part of "Marvel Costume Kit 3". * Venom appears as a villain character in Marvel Super Hero Squad Online (2011), voiced again by Steven Blum. * Anti-Venom appears in Spider-Man: Edge of Time (2011), voiced by Steven Blum. * The Eddie Brock version of Venom appears as a playable character in the fighting game Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth (2012), voiced by Roger Craig Smith. * The Eddie Brock version of Venom appears as a playable character in Marvel Heroes, voiced by Neil Kaplan. Anti-Venom and Toxin are alternate costume designs. * Venom appears as playable character in Lego Marvel Super Heroes (2013), voiced by Dave Boat. The original incarnation and the Ultimate version are different attires for the character. * Anti-Venom appears in Marvel: Avengers Alliance. * Venom appears as a playable character in Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes, voiced by Matt Lanter. He is playable in the Spider-Man playset. * Eddie Brock's various aliases (Venom, Anti-Venom and Toxin) are all playable characters in the Spider-Man Unlimited mobile game. * The Eddie Brock version of Venom appears as a playable character in Marvel Avengers Academy, voiced by Brian Stivale. * The Eddie Brock version of Venom appears as a playable character in Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2. Also, during the storyline, he will be fused with Carnage into a single entity that resembles Toxin, dubbed "Carnom", which is one of the playable characters of the game as well. Reception Eddie Brock has been the subject of fan productions. Truth in Journalism, a fan made short film by producer Adi Shankar and director and writer Joe Lynch, starring Ryan Kwanten as Brock. The film is described as "a darkly comic combination of 1980s era Spider-Man comics and the cult Belgian mockumentary Man Bites Dog". Other versions The character appears in several alternate universe titles in which the character's history, circumstances and behavior may vary slightly or extensively from the mainstream setting. Gallery Trivia * Venom's name is never mentioned in the film. * Eddie Brock is the only villain in the Raimi series to willingly become evil as he enjoys being an evil villain, unlike the other major villains of the film series who became evil due to certain circumstances: ** Green Goblin became evil due to a power-enhancing serum; ** Doctor Octopus became evil due to a failed fusion power experiment; ** New Goblin resorted to crime to avenge his father's death; ** Sandman resorted to crime to support for his sick daughter; ** Dennis Carradine was briefly helping Sandman in robbing to support for his daughter. * His working for the Daily Bugle and frame-up of Spider-Man bears similarities to his 1990s counterpart and both get fired as a result, but unlike his film counterpart he goes to the side of outright evil while his 1990 counterpart redeemed himself and became an ally of Spider-Man. * Originally, Sam Raimi didn't want to include Venom in the movie as he wasn't a fan of the character. However, he was pushed by Sony to include Venom as a sort of fan service. That being said, fans did not like this iteration of Venom, particularly because Brock does not become Venom until towards the end. ** In other earlier scripts of the film, the Lizard and Electro were planned to be the antagonists, rather than Venom and the Sandman. However, the Lizard appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man movie while Electro appeared in the sequel. * According with Raimi, a spin-off titled Venom was planned by Gary Ross. This could indicate that he survived the explosion. Also, Ross planned to include Spider-Man and a cameo of Stan Lee in the spin-off. The film was planned to release in 2012 or 2013. However, after the cancellation of Spider-Man 4 and the reboot of the Spider-Man theatrical franchise, Sony cancelled and scrapped the spin-off, leaving Venom's fate unknown. ** A new, separate, Venom spinoff featuring Tom Hardy is in the works. * In the video games adaptations of Spider-Man 3, Venom's defeat is very different to his defeat in the movie: ** In the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC versions of the video game, he and Spider-Man fell from the construction site, but Spidey saved himself and leaving Venom falling above metal tubes, which pass through it, killing him. Also, in the video game, is never cleared what happened with the Symbiote after this. ** In the Game Boy Advance version of the video game, Venom fell from the construction building with Spider-Man. However, Spidey saved himself, and Venom fell into the void, leaving his fate unknown. ** In the TV Game version of the video game, Venom was simply defeated by Spider-Man. Probably, he was arrested by the police after this. ** In the mobile phone version of the game, Venom was defeated by Spider-Man, but he escaped when Spider-Man saves Mary Jane. However, he promised Spider-Man that they would meet again before escaping. * This is never explained how he found out about Peter and Mary Jane's relationship since he never saw them together prior to kidnapping MJ and when he kidnapped her, she and Peter were partially estranged. However, since Brock knows that Peter is Spider-Man, it is possible that the symbiote retains the memories of its past hosts. * This incarnation of Venom lacks the others' bulky physique, being nearly the same physique as Spider-Man himself. * Unlike most versions of the character, who refer to themselves as "we" (i.e. both Brock and the symbiote), this version refers to himself as "I", implying that Brock is in total control of the symbiote. 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